SAFe Wednesdays - 6 SAFe Prioritization

In today's article we will learn one of the prioritization and estimation method suggested by Scaled Agile, Inc. SAFe's framework.

This method is called WSJF - Weighted Shortest Job First.

So, you have Epics or Features that are all important and takes the highest priority(according to the PO or Stakeholder). But as a Scrum Master, you understand that, even though everything is important, not everything can be accomplished in, say, 1 Sprint. So, it becomes your responsibility to ask and push things back on the PO to actually prioritize it with right data points. There are multiple ways to prioritize, few of them are MoSCoW, KANO model, R.I.C.E model, Eisenhower's Matrix, Value vs Effort/Complexity or Value vs Time Criticality matrix. Most or all of the aforementioned methods involves a lot of experience and past history through which decisions can be made.

But, it is easier to make a decision when your inputs are supported with strong data. This is exactly what WSJF does.

WSJF uses a mathematical formula to tell you which Epic or Features you can work upon. It is estimated as relative cost of delay divided by relative job duration.

Formula is:

The output of this formula will tell you which item to pick first. SAFe says, "THE JOBS WITH HIGHEST WSFJ DELIVERS THE BEST ECONOMIC OUTCOMES".

For both Cost of Delay and Job Duration estimates can be done on a Relative basis.

Follow below steps to get to appropriate WSJF.

Step 1: Calculate the Numerator (CoD)

Get and estimate of Cost of Delay relative to other jobs by involving all the desired stakeholders. Three primary factors that can impact Cost Of Delay are:

1. User-Business Value: Relative value to customer or business

2. Time Criticality: How does the value decay over time? (how long can the customers wait for the job to be done)

3. Risk Reduction and/or Opportunity Enablement: How does this reduce risk or enable new opportunities.

Once the above items are identified, simply add them together to get your Cost of Delay.

Step 2: Calculate the Denominator (Job Duration)

As it is difficult to identify the Job Duration early up in the development when you don't have past history or data, it is easier to associate the Duration with Job Size. So, Job Size and Job Duration can be used interchangeable.

NOTE: Both CoD and Job Size are estimated relatively by setting the smallest item to 1 and then relatively determine other jobs estimate.

Lets understand this with couple of examples.

If you carefully observe, from above example, Feature 1 has the highest Cost of Delay, and Feature 3 has the lowest Cost of Delay, but still as per WSJF, We should be focusing on working on Feature 3 first as it has the lowest Job Duration.

By using such an approach it will help in better decision making without much of conflict. But yes, reaching to this conclusion wont be easy and might require good amount of experience and understanding between team members.

Below are some points to note on how you can prepare a similar example on your own.

1. Scale used for each parament is Fibonacci sequence (1,2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 20)
2. First chose 1 column (start with the first one, in our case it is User-Business Value). Then pick your smallest one. In above example, Feature 3 has the smallest User-Business Value. Once you have identified User-Business Value for all the 3 Features, then move to next column and repeat the process.
3. Once you have identified Value, Time Criticality and RR/OE, then sum them in the CoD column. Then use Fibonacci to identify Job Size too.
4. REMEMBER, EVERY COLUMN WILL HAVE A "1".
5. Use the WSJF formula and arrive at the final result in the WSJF column.
6. The Job with Highest WSJF needs to be prioritized first.

Another example or way a WSJF can be used is as follows

This example simply considers the economies of the Features. And Feature C wins the bet.

So use WSJF to make your lives easier while prioritizing and estimating. :).

But you can surely work things out based on your team and your context on which Prioritization and Estimation technique truly fits the base.

For more on WSJF follow below link :

https://scaledagileframework.com/wsjf/

Signing off for the day,

Your Humble Pirate

Vikram Kanse